


A Look Into the Autobot Hangar

by tinyko



Series: Hiraeth - Starscream Gets the Redemption Arc He Deserves [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coming Out, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Happy, M/M, Movie Night, Recovery, Robot/Human Relationships, Trans Male Character, Transitioning, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28246860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyko/pseuds/tinyko
Summary: Moth has top surgery and recovers at base since it'll be much more safe to have him there than at risk of getting picked up by Decepticons. Here's a bunch of snips looking into how the following weeks go.
Relationships: Starscream (Transformers)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Hiraeth - Starscream Gets the Redemption Arc He Deserves [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069172
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	A Look Into the Autobot Hangar

**Author's Note:**

> i just got top surgery 2 weeks ago and while bedridden i wrote these!!!

"Hey, pssst, KO, Breakie, Star, one of you, come here," Moth hisses, waving his hand in the air from his makeshift bed.

"I can hear you perfectly fine from here, squishy," Knockout replies from the medbay, "So can Breakdown."

"Okay yeah, I know, but that's _why_ I need one of you over here." Moth groans, trying to rearrange his body without causing too much discomfort.

There's a sigh, and then the sound of peds on the bunker's flooring, the peds of a certain seeker ex-Con. Claws tap against the platform near Moth, and Starscream's helm pokes into view. Moth grins and waves, then tried to look around.

"It's just us here right? No other 'Bots?"

"Ratchet left to recharge for once, Bumblebee, Soundwave and Bulkhead are scouting energon and Optimus is checking on some sort of signal. Arcee and Smokescreen are out fetching the kids," Starscream says, listing each off with his digits.

"Okay, okay, great. So…" Moth pokes his index fingers together, "Just between us - you, me, the two other Ex-Cons who can hear me and Soundwave who absolutely bugged this place to Hell…"

Moth purses his lips, "I know you guys aren't 'Cons anymore _but_ ," He draws out the word, "Say, hypothetically of course, if I were to give you a hit list, would you… y'know…"

The young man makes a sharp motion with his hand near his throat.

Starscream shutters his optics in almost the exact same way as the white man blinking GIF and Knockout bursts into laughter.

"Hear me out!" Moth says, "You would be making _millions_ of people's lives _significantly_ better with at least two of these people gone. Isn't that like the Autobot code?"

"And who, Primus pray tell, are these two 'hypothetical' people?" Starscream says, making quotations in the air.

"Oh you know," Moth shrugs, "Just Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos."

\-----

In his little makeshift bed, Moth groans, flopping his phone down to his side. 

"What's wrong, Moth?" Raf asks, looking up from the TV screen briefly then turning back to his Minecraft server.

"It's so hot here," Moth whines, "My mother is getting two feet of snow and it's fucking 50 degrees here."

"50… is hot to you?" Jack turns his head, his eyebrows furrowing.

"A little, but also that means no snow," Moth pouts, "Anyway, can one of you pass another pain pill to me? It's starting to pick up a little and I wanna catch it before I start crying."

\-----

Scrolling through his phone, Moth doesn't look up at the sound of a few 'Bots making their way into the main hangar. He just chirps out a 'good morning' and continues watching the latest trend going around goth TikTok. He gets a few in return as the 'Bots get ready to hear what Optimus has in plan for each today. Breakdown peeks into view.

"Did you not go home last night?"

Moth smiles, "Yeah, I'm actually staying here for a while, until I'm mostly healed."

Breakdown's optic widens in concern, "You're hurt?"

"Not… really?" Moth furrows his brows, "Did no one tell you what's going on?"

Breakdown shakes his helm, which makes Moth sigh, "I had a surgery the other day and we figured that it would be best for me to stay and recover here rather than out in Jasper since I'm at a little more risk. June comes in twice a day to make sure I'm doing alright and to help with the clean-up of my drains."

"A-are you okay?" Breakdown seems panicked now.

Moth raises his hands, hoping it helps calm the former Wrecker, "Of course! This surgery was something I wanted for a really long time, I chose to do this and I'm really happy with my decision. It's just gonna be a long few weeks."

Breakdown still seems a little worried, but nods before getting pulled back by Knockout to discuss their patrol for the day.

\-----

"How are you doing this morning, Moth?"

Moth smiles, "Well! How about you, Ms. June Darby?"

June smiles back, slipping on some rubber gloves, "I'm doing alright, glad you're not hurting. Now, let's deal with those drains of yours."

As she shifts the blankets, Moth tries to help, but gives in quickly after realising he can hardly lift the sheet. Instead, he holds his shirt up for June to access the drains in his chest, and also to block his view since he _knows_ if he sees that, he'd probably vomit.

"Ew," Miko says, poking her head over the side of the couch that Moth has taken over as a bed, "Gross."

Moth sticks his tongue out at her, "I know, that's why I'm not looking."

Moth lets his head drop back against the pillows and gazes up at the top of the bunker, seemingly miles above him. For a brief second, there's a flash of red and then the sound of quickly receding peds and a mechanical shudder.

"You fleshies are so disgusting."

Moth doesn't reply, but raises his hand as much as he can without pulling on the fresh incisions and flips off Knockout.

\-----

"Okay, I need a pain, which is the kinda ovular white ones in the big orange bottle and an antidepressant, which is the super tiny green ones in the smaller orange bottle."

Jack nods and passes Moth the described pills from the table beside the couch. The young man pops them back and takes a swig from his water bottle tucked between him and the back of the couch.

"Thanks kiddo," Moth says, "Now, can you help me up, I need to pee."

As Jack starts to help the other man up, beginning to say something about how he's 16 and not a 'kiddo', Starscream makes his entrance known, groaning about something or another, followed by Smokescreen on his tail, the younger 'Bot still trying to either annoy or befriend the seeker. Moth really can't tell which. 

"Morning Star, morning Smokie," Moth waves, as Jack helps him stand up-right.

Smokescreen waves back enthusiastically, bonding over to the platform and Moth can see Starscream's shoulders slump in relief as he makes his way towards the medbay/research area/science-y nerd space. Moth shuffles over to the closest bathroom, thankful there's one on this level since he's not really allowed to go up and down stairs for a bit. He hears Jack and Smokescreen start a conversation, the young 'Bot probably trying to get Jack to come with him on patrol which won't take much convincing.

Before he can get into the bathroom, Ratchet leans around the corner, "Did you take your medications, Moth?"

"Yep!" Moth calls back.

"Both your pain and your antidepressant?"

"Yep, thanks Ratchet," Moth says, a little mechanically, but he knows the med-bot means well and honestly he prefers getting pestered about it so he remembers.

He's stopped once more before he can enter the bathroom, this time by Smokescreen, "What's an antidepressant?"

Moth sighs and recites the same spiel he's repeated many other times, "I have depression which means I am sad a lot of the time and have very low energy due to trauma. I don't produce the right amount of chemicals in my brain so I need to take medication to supplement. Now please-" Moth looks over his shoulder- "I need to pee."

\-----

"I've, uh, been meaning to ask you, Moth."

The young man blinks, waking himself up from the dozing he had fallen into, *Yeah, what's up Jack?"

"Why'd you move here?"

Moth cocks his head at the teen, "Well, I applied for a residency at a local print shop here and as I was looking more into Jasper, I saw that they were looking for an art TA at the high school."

Jack leans back on his hands, "Yeah, but why _Jasper_ of all places. I've heard you talk about other residencies all over the world. Plus isn't that gallery you work with back in Philadelphia?"

"Well," Moth starts, "I don't really know. Gut feeling, I guess? But I submit my work regularly to multiple galleries, the one in Philly is just the main one and for the most part, calls for shows are closed to the public submit save for once a year."

"Huh, the art world is weird."

"You're telling me."

\-----

"Ugh, I hate this case. She was so obviously murdered," Moth smacks his hands weakly against the blankets as the TV drones about an 'unsolved' murder case.

There's the sound of steps coming closer, but no other noise, so Moth tries to wiggle and shift to see which 'bot decided to bother him now. He's pleasantly surprised to see Soundwave looming over him, his faceplate staring down at him? At the TV? Moth can't really tell.

"What's up, Tall-Dark-and-Mysterious?" Moth says with a smile.

The silent mech points (dramatically, of course) to the TV. Moth growls, then coughs, then winces.

"It's a true crime show and I didn't expect this case to pop up, but I already know it like the back of my hand. From my experience, if you're into true crime, there's _always_ one or two cases that just _stick_ and this is one of mine. She was murdered, so obviously, but it was ruled a suicide because her husband paid off the police. It's infuriating, but not surprising."

The mech nods, then repeats, " _It's infuriating._ "

As Soundwave stalks off, there's a breaking sound and then a buzzing as Lazerbeak floats off his chest and lands behind the couch, folding his wings and resting his head on the pillows Moth lays against.

" _Lazerbeak_ ," Moth whines, "These are _my_ pillows."

\-----

"Alright, since I'm stuck here and not able to do much, I have remade all of the playlists I made for our friends."

"You… made playlists?"

"Oh! Oh! Show me mine! You better have put Slash Monkey on it!"

Moth holds his phone close to his chest and Jack quickly pulls Miko back down, "No rough housing, remember? Recovering from surgery."

Miko sticks her tongue out at Jack, then at Moth. Jack rolls his eyes. Moth sticks his tongue out.

"Anyway, no, I haven't made ones for you kids yet, but I made one for all our giant transforming car and plane friends for when they go out driving or flying."

"What did you put on them?" Raf asks, scrunching his nose to push his glasses up so he can keep both hands on his controller. _Super Monkey Ball_ requires the utmost concentration and Moth is genuinely impressed the boy can play it and converse.

"Well, I based it around what I thought each mech would like so Ratchet is all old country music with a few Orville Peck songs. Breakie has a bunch of old rock and grunge music and KO used to just be Lana Del Ray, now I added some more diversity and threw in some popular TikTok songs. Bulk gets metal with a few grunge songs if he wants a change of pace. 'Bee got bubblegum pop songs. Arcee was a little hard so I just picked what's popular with lesbians. Smokie needs some _class_ so I gave him all the bands I listened to in middle school. UM got nothing but classical, though I doubt he'd even accept it if I tried to give it to him. Jackie was a little hard too, but I went with my gut and picked some more modern rock with some classic country and Star got a whole playlist chock full of melodramatic music for when he's being _like that_. Papa OP was so excruciatingly hard so I tried some American classics, stuff you'd hear in a diner in the middle of fucking life no where on a spur of the moment roadtrip."

"Wow, that's… a lot," Jack says after a moment.

"Wait, what about Soundwave?" Raf asks, tilting his whole body with the platform in his game.

Moth grins and merely scrolls through his phone to Soundwave's playlist. Pressing play, his little speaker blasts out the Minecraft Creeper Song.

How Raf is _still_ able to play _Super Monkey Ball_ baffles Moth. 

\-----

Waking up in the middle of the night is the worst. Waking up in the middle of the night _in pain_ is _even worse_.

Moth groans and gasps, eyes scrunching then opening, blinking back sleep dust and tears. He tries to squint through the dark to find his pain meds, but gives up and fumbles for his phone to use the flashlight. The brightness of his phone and then the flashlight don't help but he can spot his pain meds and tries to grab them. 

Unfortunately, they're just out of reach and it starts to hurt as he stretches his arm. With a whine, he pulls back and opens his phone again, scrolling to one of the numbers that are much too long to work, yet still somehow do, and calls the first one.

A grumbling voice answers the other line, "Do you have any time what fragging time it is?"

"I need help. It hurts." Is all Moth can muster out.

That seems to wake Knockout up, "I'll be right there, dollface." 

The line gets disconnected and Moth drops his phone to his side. Within moments there's the sound of a 'bot coming down the hall. There's a weird sound that Moth's still not familiar with and then there's a person in front of him with bright red, short hair and neatly groomed facial hair with some fancy, lacy and silky outfit. 

They reach for the mess of pill bottles, "It's the big orange one, right?"

Moth nods, "Yeah."

The person, Knockout's holoform, picks the bottle up with their manicured nails and pops out one of the pills. They set the bottle down and make their way over to Moth, kneeling by his side and cupping their free hand under his to pass off the pill. Moth graciously takes it and downs it with some water.

"Thank you, KO. I'm sorry for waking you, you were just the first I hit in my contacts."

The holoform fizzles away, "You owe me a wax."

"Of course, I'll make it extra special when I'm able to have full movement of my arms," Moth says settling back down in his blankets.

\-----

A groan echoes through the base, turning into a whine then pettering off to nothing. Moth wiggles in his little bed, moaning and whining.

"Primus, what are you complaining about, fleshie?" Starscream snips, snapping his helm over in the young human's direction from his position at his little research monitor.

"I got my drains out but I still have to wear this horrid contraption," Moth whines, "This thing hurts so much, it digs into my sides and my back."

Starscream huffs, "Stop your whining, you're disrupting my concentration and this is _very_ important research your little mind couldn't even begin to comprehend."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm dumb, you're smart," Moth pouts, "Can I rest up with you? You run warm and it might help."

The seeker groans, and there's the sound of metal dragging on metal. Moth can picture him dragging his talons down his faceplates. He hears some pedes and then gentle, narrow digits wrap around him, picking him up with utmost care. Starscream bundles Moth up and raises him up, tucking him into the dip of his chest plate, where a human's clavicles meet. Moth shifts and gets comfy, leaning into the warmth against him.

"You're like an electric blanket," Moth mutters, nuzzling closer, "You're really a softie, huh, Star?"

"Be quiet, fleshie," Starscream's voice holds no malice, in fact sounds more soft.

Moth smiles, eyes drooping as the warmth from Starscream's chest eases the soreness from his post-op binder. The tapping of Starscream's claws on the panels lulls him to sleep.

Optimus comes in later that evening, prepping to go to a possible energon location and finds Starscream cradling Moth to his chestplate, cooing softly in the way only seekers do. The Prime smiles as Starscream's faceplates flare blue as he realises he's not alone, but still makes no loud noise as to not wake the small human he holds gently, as if he holds the whole world in his servos.

\-----

"Alright! I've got popcorn, candy, soda, and the… pretzel sticks… you asked for… You're such an old man, Moth! Who asks for _pretzels_ for movie night?" Miko jumps around, making sure everything is roughly in reach of the oldest human and the other kids who have hunkered down and spread out more pillows and blankets Moth thought were stored in the entire base.

"I like them!" He defends himself, then mutters with a pout, "And I'm not _that_ old."

"I got all the movies you asked for too!" Raf says, with a big smile as he sets his laptop to display on the TV.

Moth puts his hands to his chest, dramatically, "Aw, Raf! You guys are so sweet! I must be your favourite TA."

"You're family, not just a TA," Jack says, struggling with the bag of Redvines in his hands, "Plus you just had a major surgery, you deserve to have a movie night with your favourites."

There's a bunch of whirls and beeps, followed by the loud plopping of a mech behind them. Around the corner, another mech skids into the main bunker.

"You didn't tell me it's movie night!" Smokescreen exclaims, settling down next to 'Bee. 

"Oh, yeah, let me text KO and Breakie, I know they would be interested too. I'll text the group chat," Moth says, pulling out his phone.

"What group chat? I want in!" Miko bounces in place.

Moth grins, "It's one for all the ex-Cons. I do have one for all 'bots though, I should add you guys to it now that I think about it…"

As Raf finishes getting the first movie ready (" _The Crow_? What's this about? It looks weird." "It's a goth classic!") Knockout, Bulkhead and Soundwave have settled down along the other mechs. Moth is comfy and drinking his bottle of root beer in a massive, gag-gift sized curly straw and feels a warmth in his heart.

"So what's this about?" Smokescreen asks, and gets a shushing noise from 'Bee.

"Uh," Moth purses his lips, "Well, hm. Death and revenge. Also I watched it first when I was ten so you're good Raf."

Halfway through the 1998 version of _Cats_ (and the subsequent singing of Moth to every single song), Starscream and Arcee has found their way to the movie night function as well. Ratchet "joined" at the beginning of _Saint Trinians_ by standing at his console, but absolutely doing nothing but watching the movies out of the corner of his optics. Breakdown came in a little miffed at Knockout for not waking him during the ending of _Kiki's Delivery Service_. By the time the credits roll on the final film, all the humans are passed out, slouched across each other and bundled up in the multitude of blankets and pillows with Lazerbeak curled around all of them like a protective cat.

\-----

"So, Moth."

The young man looks up from his linoleum, the cap of the Sharpie between his lips, "What's up Miko?"

The girl sits cross legged across from him, bouncing her knees with her hands around her boots. The fact she's not making eye contact and in fact finding anywhere _but_ him, worries him so he caps his Sharpie and turns his attention to her fully.

Miko purses her lips, leaning back to look at the ceiling, "Do you… do you like anyone?"

Moth sputters and feels his cheeks burn, not quite expecting that question from her, "Well, ah, w-what makes you ask that?"

"I think I like someone."

"Oh?"

Miko goes quiet again, making Moth concerned, but he waits for her to reply. She rocks back and forth then pulls her legs up to her chest.

"She's in my biology class."

Immediately ,Moth knows why the young girl in front of him is nervous. He relaxes his posture (or, tries to since he's already pretty much always in some relaxed position due to the post-op binder velcroed around his chest and the many stitches holding his flesh together and his nipples on) and smiles gently.

"Oh yeah, what's she like?"

Miko blushes a little, "She's really cool. She has bright blue hair and lots of ear piercings and likes the same bands as me."

She looks up at Moth, "It's not weird that she's… a girl… right?"

Moth feels his heart twist, "Of course not."

"How… how did you know?"

"Hm…" Moth looks up, thinking for a moment, "I'm not sure if there was one specific incident. My mother raised me to let me choose the clothes I wanted to wear and the toys I wanted to play with. And I've always liked boys. I really thought about being… not cis when I was 13 and it was a rough time for a while. But my mother was so supportive. It took her a bit, because she just didn't understand for a little while, but she came around and was my main pillar.

"But, no, I didn't have one moment that made me suddenly realise that I was gay and trans, it just kinda happened."

Miko nods.

"You don't have to have a label for yourself now, or ever if you don't want," Moth says, "And it can change as you get older. When I your age I think I was identifying as agender and lesbian? I think? God, I don't even remember. I know it wasn't until sophomore year that I started going by Leo and junior year I came out to my teachers for using he/him pronouns."

"So…" Miko starts, drawing out the vowel, "I do like the label 'lesbian'. It feels… comfy?"

"Great! Then go by that if you want for now. If you learn later down the road that maybe you're actually bi or trans or something, that's fine too! It's fluid and shifts, don't feel cemented in on one specific label. But I'm glad you feel comfy calling yourself a lesbian right now."

Miko grins, big and goofy, then launches herself at Moth, hugging him while still being careful of his chest, "Thanks Moth!"

Moth pats her head, "Of course! Thanks for coming to me, that means a lot."

"But," the girl leans back, "You didn't answer my question. Do you like someone?"

Moth blushes brightly again, "Well, I-I'm not sure if that's… appropriate for me to talk about…"

Miko gasps, "Is it Agent Fowler?"

"What!" Moth makes a face, "God, no. The man's like an estranged uncle. Plus he absolutely has the hots for Jack's mother."

"C'mon, you can trust me! We're alt-buddies!"

"Well," Moth stutters, "You didn't even tell me the name of the girl you like."

"Her name's Abilene. Now, tell me!"

Moth puffs his cheeks, "Fine, but this stays between us, alright?"

Miko nods enthusiastically.

With a deep breath and a brief 'Why am I doing this? I can't believe a fourteen year old is getting me to confess to this crush' moment, he mutters out, "S...eam."

"What was that? C'mon, I can't hear you!"

"St...ream."

Miko pouts. Moth caves.

"It's Starscream."

There's a moment of peaceful silence.

"What!" Miko screeches.

"Shhh!" Moth hushes the girl, cheeks aflame, "Yes, I've got a big, fat crush on Starscream."

"Wow," Miko sits back, "That's so weird but also kinda cute in a really weird way."

Moth playfully pushes the girl, smiling and cheeks red, "Shush, you." 

\-----

"Hey, Moth," Smokescreen comes up to the platform, leaning slightly against it.

"What's up, Smokie?" Moth replies, looking up from his sketchbook for a second.

"It's about your name, why's it Moth?"

The young man bites back a 'Oh my God, you can't just ask people why they're named Moth' and smiles up at the curious 'bot.

"I stole it."

Smokescreen shutters his optics then exclaims, "What?! Isn't that… illegal?"

Moth laughs, "Nah, I didn't _steal it_ steal it, I saw someone else with a similar name and I really liked the idea so I tried going by it and it just stuck! I like it, it's fun."

"So you… just change your name whenever?"

"Eh," Moth shrugs, "More, I just change my nickname. My legal name is Leonardo, but everyone I know calls me Moth outside of like formal places and my college."

Smokescreen's optics seem to glitter, "That's so cool!"

Moth laughs and gets back to his sketching, finally planning a new series to send to his main gallery. They finally started emailing and asking about progress. 

"Follow up question."

"Shoot."

"Why do you give all of us nicknames too?"

Moth pauses, taping his pencil to his lip as he thinks, "Y'know, I don't really know. I just always tend to use pet names and terms of endearment and nicknames and such with people I care about."

The young mech coos, his servos going to cup his faceplates, "You _care_ about us."

"Of course I do, you guys and the kids are my family and I love you all." Moth says, seriously, looking right up at Smokescreen.

Off in the corner, he hears a crunch of metal, something dropping and some cursing. 

"You good, old man?" Moth calls out.

"S-shut your intake! And I'm not an old man," Ratchet's voice is sharp and full of static and crackling.

Moth giggles and leans back against his pillows. Yeah, this is his family and he loves them all.


End file.
